Item added to your basket!

Reviews by Nawab2012

91

Stardrive is Worth it!

This is not your typical 4x strategy game, but that is what makes it so unique and thrilling to play. A lot (and I do mean a lot) of emphasis was put on ship design and combat and it is in these categories that Stardrive achieves greatness:

Fighters will circle one another, trying to find the best firing arc, and engage in fast paced combat; Capital ships exchange powerful volleys of missiles, torpedoes, or lasers while trying to fend off smaller craft with point defense weaponry; Support ships send out repair drones or resupply your fleet with ammunition during longer, extended battles; The whole thing turns into a symphony of destruction the likes of which is usually reserved for big budget scifi movies.

Other than the combat, the ability to create ships of your own design (By design, I'm talking about the internal components and not the external "look" of the ship) is easily the most appealing aspect of the game. Design choices make a huge impact in battle too: Place a reactor core in your ship with no armor or shields around it for protection and your just asking for an enemy to land a lucky blow and send your brand new frigate to oblivion.

There is something just so satisfying about coming up with a well thought out layout for your ship and watching it excel in combat against your enemies.

It is certainly not perfect and like all 4x games there is a learning curve, but if you are fan of large scale space battles and deceptively deep starship design then there is nothing out there quite like StarDrive.

80

A Good Game

As far as a 3rd person action/adventure game goes this is very good, as far as a Tomb raider game goes it's not too bad but it could be a lot better. From the perspective of a reboot from a great series this is certainly a nice breath of fresh air and there is a lot great things that has been put into this game: The environments and visuals are some of the best I've seen in a 3rd person game let a lone an action game for current generation technology. The combat system and mechanics are a joy to play and are free flowing and easy to control, the AI is pretty smart and react accordingly to their surroundings, character development is actually quite good considering a lot of people are saying they're 2 dimensional it's still a good story/plot all in all. These are some of the great things this game ha to offer. However I do feel that this game is missing something, it's missing the Indianna Jones style tomb/booby traps explorations we all grew to love in a Tomb Raider game. Don't get me wrong this game has tombs, it has exploration but it just doesn't quite feel the same and that brings me back to my point as a 3rd person action/adventure game this concept would be fine but as it's Tomb Raider I really crave this and that's why I will give Crystal Dynamics the benefit of the doubt and hope they add these important features for any forthcoming sequels. All in all a decent game and deserves a respectable score, however if you're looking for the true Tomb Raider feel you may be left slightly dissapointed.

100

AMAZING! (Spoilers)

Gameplay will never change. There is this mass illusion in the game industry that each game has mechanics slightly more polished than its predecessors. While you can tweak it a bit, the shooter formula has reached its apex, and while Bioshock Infinite does improve superficially on both the vigors and the guns, especially in the latter category (gunfire and recoil more realistic), it's really what it doesn't do that the game needed more of. Some have complained about the lack of RPG elements (with the exception of gun and vigor upgrades), such as inventory or map screen. I found this to be a huge improvement. There is no menu interaction to slow the pacing and you're always on the move. I thought the tone of the game world would have felt more immersive with the lack of a HUD, much like the first gameplay demo Irrational Games released several years ago. But all of the above are personal opinions and design choices. What left a sour taste in my mouth wasn't anything you can experience in the game itself. No, you could only experience this bittersweet regret if you had watched, in eager anticipation, all of Ken Levine's interviews, only to realize you had just witnessed the biggest cop out in gaming history.

Expectation #1: An actual floating city, complete with physics.

After the first demo that was released (which is never shown in the game), we see one of the massive, orange balloons tethered to the corner of a belltower deflate suddenly and the massive structure starts to pivot towards the ground, the bell flying loose from its moorings only to come grinding to a stop inches away from your feet, the cobblestones buckling under its weight and shooting off in every direction. Later, Ken Levine commented on the instablity of the city, how the tech team had made it pulse with life, and hinted that you'd be able to topple the city around you. This fell short on both accounts, the only undulating architecture in the game appearing during the first half, and after you're solidly captivated by the world, these stellar sights give way to more mundane gameplay (street shootouts and interior combat). It never feels like their main selling point is really taken to its full potential.

Expectation #2: Watch the city tear itself apart (pre-Rapture)

This is the big one. I want to be as harsh as possible when I say that this was a blatant lie. We were supposedly going to 'watch the city fall apart before us'. We were told that there would be moments where you would have to interact with citizens on the street, such as pointing a gun at a potential mugger to send him scrambling, or intervening in a local execution (both of which are shown in the same demo). There are maybe three moments in the entire game where you feel this sort of weight behind your actions, and they are as superfluous as they are dull. You can't change the overall outcome of anything, although watching the colorful, Independence Day style utopia burn slowly is captivating in its own way. I would have preferred a little more interaction, hence replayability.

Expectation #3: A decent resolution.

This one is debatable. And the main reason for the spoilers tag. Let's get the big one out of the way, the resolutions to each storyline. Both Daisy Fitzroy and Jeremiah Fink are shadowbox characters that bleed out of the story as quickly as they pop in. Slate is one of the more interesting characters but doesn't feel fully fleshed out. Don't get me started on Comstock. Let's face it, time travel was both the protagonist and antagonist here. It solves everything (most levels are going back and forth through the area in different time periods), and also helps ease along the ruthlessly shoehorned ending. But despite all of this, the ending was emotional and relatively significant enough to make it feel as if it 'belonged'. It was the gamer in me that made me want to slap Ken Levine. Songbird becomes your best bud and then you get to watch him drown in two seconds. Apparently the Bioshock story will never change because even with its fairly restricted narrative parameters, it's the doorway to infinite worlds just like it with new coats of paint (so we can expect this disappointment forever). Oh, and my personal favorite: The final boss is three waves of the easiest enemies in the game. No Handyman. No Songbird. Fail.

But aside from all the things they promised and didn't deliver, this is a bittersweet shooter, with some amazingly satisfying gameplay regarding the vigors and gunplay, but some equally frustrating inconsistencies in the pacing and storyline. Oh, and this game tries desperately to emulate Disney (and doesn't do a bad job), but it's so obvious in parts it's almost painful, especially if you're like me and find the overall 'girl in a tower' concept a little overused and cheesy.

Still, if you're a fan of shooters or Bioshock in general, you owe it to yourself to see how far the series has come.

87

Not Perfect but on its way!

At first I have to admit - I'm a huge trucking games fan. I played every one of them, all made by SCS software and also the Rig n Roll failgame. I waited for this game to come out, I was patient when they postponed the date of release. What can I say - this game is beautiful and made some of my dreams related to truck driving come true, but it lacks in main core of the game. The first and biggest flaw is lack of truck physics - trucks don't behave like a sports car and here they do. The springs are stiff as hell and it is really hard to fall out of the turn (the trailer doesn't "drag" You enough). There is absolutely no feeling of "bumps" - even Agrar Simulator 2012 has this so why SCS couldn't do it? Another huge problem is the map - Netherlands, Poland, Italy - YES, these countries are interesting and well made. But when You play the game You will find Yourself driving for endless hours through Germany which is the main core of the map. And here You find another fail - Germany roads are copy-paste from German Truck Simulator! Adding new graphics didn't help - these roads are so bad as they were in GTS so they are: 1. Unrealistic, 2. Boring, 3. Boring, 4. Unrealistic! The trailers - most of them copied from GTS, fail again. SCS needed over 2 years for this game - we could at least expect new, realistic models - but no. They're not here. Economy? This one doesn't exist. You can earn huge amount of money just driving - there are almost no costs, there are no oponnents, there is no real market and finally the payments You get are 5 times as big as in real world (at least You can mod that). No wonder why there was a payment nerf mod released 2 weeks after game release date. Finally - the biggest fail of all - lack of AI cars and lack of pedestrians (they are only in 3-4 cities but I can live with that). Endless hours of driving and You don't see any random accidents (SCS Promised that but it's not here), You don't see random roadworks (promised - not here, all I can see are the same roadworks everywhere). Finally there is almost no AI cars which could make a traffic jam and a trip harder. 3 lane German road to Berlin and You see 3 cars around. Seriously?!

The goods: 1. Truck modification options
2. Nice graphics (although AA is terribly ugly and the MSAA filter SCS have used should land in a trash)
3. Interesting sounds in part of trucks
4. Nice countries (except Germany and Austria)
5. Well made truck models 6. Lots of mods which make game better but not as good as it should be. Final grade - 6/10 for 2012 quite big budget for the simulator game. Comparing to products released before - 9/10. So let's say final decision is strong 7 - but a lot to fix. And finally the biggest fail of all - economy

94

Must Buy!

Fantastic visuals. Someone cared deeply about the art. The voice acting is great, the game play is very fun. Don't hesitate to get this or it's sequel.The graphics are really great with very beautiful colors and effects. Story is mediocre but that doesnt affect the game overall. The puzzles are very clever and can be solved with every character you got, either thief, wizard and knigth. A bit small on gameplay length, featuring 15 levels and a secret one after you finish the game.

The intro before every level is very good and the narrator puts you in the story pretty well.

The music is just epic, one of my favourite scores in gaming.Wish there was more of these games. Absolutely fabulous. The levels feel very polished and stunning to look at. But the wizard needs more Oomph. A better way of using his skills offensively. Buy it now. ;)

97

Awesome Experience!

Subtract everything you hate about past elder scrolls games, add everything you love, add a better engine that does not crash on you every 10 minutes and is not a steaming pile of bugs, pretty up everything, make the faces cooler and make just about everything better and you have skyrim. This game is a masterpiece, its the game that we have been waiting for in 2011, (Most titles this year have been bad to say the least) This game would deserve a perfect 10 if not for the super lame secondary main quest which is the civil war, you can kill the final boss in one hit, I understand that level scaling is bad in most cases, but in some cases things have to be level scaled. The annoying part is, the civil war is about the length of the dragon questline! this game would get a 9.7 in my book now, thanks to that one little detail, but since metacritic forces me to round up my score, 10 it is!
Also, if you really want to complain about the crappy interface of how you painfully select everything and how its built for a controller, do one of the two following things : get a mod, or use a controller, we all have USB ports

94

Nice Game!

Well what can be said about this game? it was a huge step forward in the racing games genre to be honest, the first game was something extremely good, i personally enjoyed it a lot, the only thing that demotivated me was the fact that there was no Online Multiplayer Mode at least in the PC, im not entirely sure how was in Console
The sequel of the game was extremely good, the action is even more intense than in the 1st one with a different cast of characters, new and old reworked stages, extremely good soundtrack and the missing link of the first one, Online Multiplayer!.........BUT, i have to say that there was some points in this game that in my personal opinion, were a bit of a let down
1st All Star Moves, in the 1st game each ASM was unique and presented a real threat for everyone including the 1st place player because they were completely devastating and game breaking (no wonder why they were All Star Moves) while in this one....uhm....cant really tell if there's any difference at all between every character ASM's....the only ones that look really different are Nights and Reala's moves, that was kind of demotivating for me, they dont look or feel that menacing as before, you can be at 1st place, see that someone gets the All Star and not even feel it
2 The Announcer, in the first game, the Announcer was quite a crazy guy with a really catchy voice who always was informing with precision what was happening with the other racers, specially when triggering the ASM's and sometimes could make you laugh a little bit (sometimes it made me think of Micky Cantor from Monday Night Combat), in this game the announcer feels pretty insipid and with a huge lack of energy compared to the first one and barely talks, that was, once again, in my opinion, kind of a let down 3 Minor detail but still worth mentioning, the attention to details in Items, i feel that this game lacked a more remarkable variety of items and icons during ASMs in the first one each time you grabbed one you could see an icon of something related to what will trigger the All Star, in this one you only get to see a Star with EVERY character, its not much of a big deal but its still marks a bit of lack of attention to details

But well, all things considered, i cant say that i havent enjoyed the game, its really good and can give you plenty of hours of fun :D i can highly recommend it, if you are a PC Gamer, Sonic Fan and Racing fan, there's no way you can miss this one

97

Amazing Game!

ArmA 2 is truly an amazing game in itself and with DayZ it just gets better and better its like a pvp zombie apocalypse. ArmA is just so great and I love this game. I recommend to any gamers who like a challenge.